adminEskom intensified, with unions threatening a strike that could cut electricity to the country.
South Africa has been hit by a wave of strikes that have already dented output in the fuel, gold and coal sectors, threatening to curb growth in an already stagnant economy. Talks between the National Union of Mineworkers (Num), two other unions and Eskom collapsed on Thursday after the utility refused to improve its 7 percent wage rise offer. The three unions have lowered their demands to 13 percent.
“We have come down on our demands but Eskom is refusing to bargain,” Paris Mashego, the Num’s chief negotiator at Eskom, told Reuters.
Th Num demand is well above the country’s 5 percent inflation rate and comes after winning 9 percent increases for unionised workers at Eskom a year ago, after threatening to walk off the job when
South Africa was hosting the Soccer World Cup.
The Num, the country’s most powerful union with more than 250 000 members, reached deals this week in the coal and gold sectors for wage increases of 7,5 percent to 10 percent, which will likely be used as benchmarks for pay hikes in other industries.
Eskom supplies nearly all of South Africa’s power and the utility has been struggling to find the money it needs to pay for new power plants and avoid a power crisis which forced mines and smelters to shut for days and cost the country billions of dollars in lost output.
But a strike is still a long way off as the unions need to go through stringent procedures before workers can walk off the job and Eskom may use courts, seeking an injunction to prevent a work stoppage
that could damage the economy.
“It’s too early to speak of a strike,” said Eskom spokesperson Hilary Joffe. Any significant pay rises would affect the utility’s already strained balance sheet. – Reuters.
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